Coming off a series win against the New York Mets at home - the longest homestand of the season - the Washington Nationals will try to keep rising in the NL East as they travel to the City of Brotherly Love and face the second-place Philadelphia Phillies. Even though this is a quick series, the Nationals have a chance to leap over the Phillies with two wins.

The Nationals are 12-118 when they are away from Nats Park, and are 12-14 against all NL East teams this season, however, so far this season the Nationals are currently 4-2 against the Phillies with two wins so far at Citizens Bank Field in Philly.

The Nationals starting pitching have been extremely successful over the past month. The starting rotation during the month of June has an ERA of 2.08 which is one of the best in the majors.

On the other side of the ball, the Nationals' hitting has improved over the past couple of games. The Nationals team batting average is .248 which is tied for the highest in the National League and has a .710 OPS which ranks fifth. However, situational hitting has been an expanding problem. With runners in scoring position the team is hitting .237 which ranks 10 in the NL and the team has a .698 OPS, but the bad news doesn’t stop there:

With two outs and runners in scoring position the team is hitting a .198 batting average (12th in the NL) and a .612 OPS (12th)

Want more bad news?? Well, this is the worst of it. With bases loaded, the Nationals are hitting a hideous .156 with a .511 OPS and have only one sacrifice fly with 70 plate appearances.  Yeah, that’s pretty bad with situational hitting which the Nats need to improve on if they want to make any serious noise.

We don’t need to mention the latest leadoff hitter and his impressive numbers, hopefully, his streak doesn’t end anytime soon.

Tuesday, June 22, 2021: TBD v. RHP Zack Wheeler (5-3, 2.15 ERA, 118 Strikeouts)

Rumor has it that Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer might return from the IL and pitch in the series opener against the Phillies on Tuesday night. Scherzer is coming off the IL after suffering groin tightness in back when the San Francisco Giants visited the Washington Nationals. If Scherzer isn’t able to pitch the Nationals might send Paolo Espino again to the mound instead of the Nationals ace.  Espino got his first career win on June 15, against the Pirates. Espino went five innings of no run ball and gave up only three hits, striking out two. Espino has faced Philly hitters so far this season. In his 11 innings pitched against Philly hitters, he only gave up two runs on two hits. (one Homerun and one double)

Wheeler looks like a lock to make his first National League All-Star team, consistently pitching deep into games, racking up strikeouts and giving the Phillies a chance to win. If he keeps it up, he should be in NL Cy Young consideration.  Despite Wheeler having a great, oh wait, a stellar season so far, the Phillies are only 7-6 in his starts which include two 1 run losses.

Additionally, Wheeler has six no-decisions and only four wins, which in each of those six-no decisions, Wheeler’s thrown at least five innings and struck out at least six total batters. Lastly, three of his double-digit strikeout games have resulted in no-decisions for the possible All-Star.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021: RHP Erick Fedde (4-4, 3.33 ERA, 49 Strikeouts), v. RHP Vince Velasquez (2-2, 4.44 ERA, 59 Strikeouts)

Erick Fedde is riding a streak of 20 consecutive scoreless innings. He last faced the Phillies on May 11, when he struck out four and allowed three runs in five frames. Fedde’s ERA during the month of June is 2.54 ERA over nine starts.

In his last start Fedde had seven innings of no scoreless ball, six strikeouts against the Mets. The Nationals are going to need to see another performance like his last start so that they win in Philly before heading to Miami to face the marlins.

The Phillies will send out Vince Velasquez to the mound to face the Nationals on Wednesday afternoon. After posting a 2.30 ERA in his first six starts, Velasquez is struggling again.Velasquez has a 7.88 ERA in his last four starts, striking out 14 and walking nine in just 16 innings, and has not pitched more than five innings since May 25.

The last time that the Nationals faced Velasquez was back on June 6th when he gave up three runs on four hits over four innings. Velasquez did however strike out four in that game.

Conclusion:

This isn’t a do or die series however, it would be nice to come out of Philly and head to Miami either in second place or tied for second in the NL East. Sweeping the Phillies away from Nationals Park would be great and really test the strength of the Nationals hitting and pitching.

Go NATS!!